Common Mistakes Committed and Challenges Faced in Research Proposal Writing by University of Aden Postgraduate Students

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the common mistakes committed by the postgraduate students as well as the challenges they faced during writing their proposals. The study obtained a convince sampling in which 15 postgraduate students of English Department, University of Aden were recruited. In this study, the data was collected by using the students' proposals, and their correction forms, as well as using focused group discussion. The researcher analyzed the data and used qualitative analyses i.e., content-based analyses by highlighting the main themes. The findings of the study indicated that the majority of the postgraduate students committed common mistakes such as the choice of an appropriate title, unclear statement of the problem, writing irrelevant literature review, choosing inappropriate methodology, references system was not clear and some plagiarism issues. Moreover, it was investigated that the postgraduate students generally had some challenges in using standard proposal format, writing literature reviews, methodology skills and other supervision issues. These findings are of great importance for instructors at postgraduate program.